


please don't set my shirt on fire; i only got it yesterday

by greeksalad



Series: fingertips stained with hope [3]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Bending (Avatar), Bending (Avatar), Domestic, Established Relationship, F/F, Family Feels, Kid Fic, M/M, look i had to find a way to include zukka, the "thats a child" meme, zukka nation rise up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25496857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeksalad/pseuds/greeksalad
Summary: Parenting is full of surprises.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II, Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: fingertips stained with hope [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824820
Comments: 37
Kudos: 273





	please don't set my shirt on fire; i only got it yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> did i write this for the sole purpose of incorporating two of my favorite ships into one fic?? Yes, And I'll Do It Again

On the hottest day of the summer, Lin was sat at the dining table, scanning through a letter from Korra and her friends (which she had _not_ asked to receive), when there was a startled shout from Kya from the living room.

“ _Holy fuck!”_

Alarmed, Lin dropped the letter and dashed down the hall, skidding to a halt in the open doorway. “What- _oh my Spirits.”_

As someone who was Chief of Police for twenty years, it took a lot to surprise Lin.

Seeing her daughter running around with her entire hand on fire certainly did the trick, however.

Kya was in the corner of the room, one hand extended towards a glass resting on the coffee table, like she’d instinctively gone to bend the water out of it and then thought better of it at the last second.

Sivah gleefully stomped her foot, and a tiny ball of flame flew out from the sole and blasted a hole in their rug. Luckily, nothing caught. Sivah giggled happily.

“ _What do I do,”_ Kya asked, not taking her eyes off Sivah.

For a second, Lin’s mind went completely blank. Sure, she’d dealt with rogue benders before, not to mention her fair share of pyros, but this was _her daughter_. She couldn’t exactly tackle her to the ground or restrain her with cords. Kya would murder her. Lin would murder _herself_.

Going off a spur of the moment (and, admittedly, completely terrible) idea, she clenched her fists and heaved her arms towards the ceiling. Their wooden floor splintered as the concrete under it erupted upwards, encircling Sivah like a makeshift playpen and trapping her in the middle of the room, _away_ from the flammable furniture.

Kya raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Lin, who just shrugged. Personally, she thought it was completely valid to be terrified of a firebending baby. A ruined floor was fairly far down on her list of things to worry about. 

Sivah didn’t even look like she’d noticed the sudden change in terrain. Now, she was toddling around her little enclosure at top speed, waving her flaming fist like she was a pro-bending spectator. She couldn’t quite form proper words yet, but she’d taken to babbling long strings of nonsense, and right now she was going _hard._

Carefully, Kya bent the water out of her glass and directing it to surround Sivah’s hand like a glove, extinguishing the flame. Sivah turned a hurt look on her mother. Before she could start grumbling, though, a tiny spark jumped from her other clenched fist, and Sivah almost toppled over in attempt to catch it.

Kya, apparently deciding that this was a decent enough (and _non-destructive_ ) distraction, bent the water into a sphere and send it back into her glass.

Silently, her and Lin turned to stare at each other.

_What the fuck just happened?_

_\---_

After a mild mutual mental breakdown, the two of them decided to videocall the most responsible firebender they knew.

“Hey, old farts,” Izumi said by way of greeting.

“You’re older than us, ‘Zumi,” Lin grumbled, scowling at her friend.

“Doesn’t change the fact that I pull it off better than you two,” Izumi said, smiling sunnily at the camera.

Lin opened her mouth to retort, but Kya managed to shove her head into frame before her wife got too distracted from their original purpose. “Is Uncle Zuko around, Zooms?” she asked, trying to ignore Lin flipping Izumi off from behind her.

“Yeah, he’s canoodling with Dad on the couch,” she said. “I think they’re watching Say Yes to the Dress. Why, what’s up?”

In response, Kya tilted the camera to show Sivah in the background, who was gleefully toddling around her makeshift pen with a fistful of sparks.

“Oh, _Spirits,_ ” Izumi said. “Right. Hang on a second.”

The camera jolted and blurred as Izumi got to her feet and started walking through the house. It was easily recognizable as their vacation home on the western coast of the Fire Islands. Kya and Lin had both been there as kids; Kya still had a vivid memory of Bumi chasing her down the main hall, both of them slipping and sliding on the immaculately polished mahogany floors. Not long after that, they accidentally broke one of the house’s many old vases and then managed to convince the adults that Tenzin was the one that did it.

Good times.

“Baba!” Izumi was yelling when Kya zoned back in. “Your favourite nieces need your help!” There was some kind of muffled response, then Izumi called, “Yeah, Baba. _No_ , Dad, not you.”

The camera jolted violently again, and then the smiling faces of Zuko and Sokka appeared onscreen. “Why does no one ever need my help?” Sokka was grumbling; he looked like he was biting back a smile, though. Zuko patted his hand placatingly.

“Aww, we’re your favourite nieces?” Kya said, momentarily distracted.

“Of course,” Sokka said. “Su, too.”

Zuko sighed, somehow managing to look exasperated with his husband despite the fact that he was clearly half sprawled across Sokka’s lap. “They’re your _only_ nieces.”

“Technicalities,” Sokka said dismissively.

“ _Anyway,”_ Lin interjected, clearing her throat pointedly. “Zuko, we have a slight issue.”

There was a clear shift in the older man’s demeanour. He sat up a little straighter, brows furrowing slightly as he focused in on the two of them. “What’s wrong? Did Korra go missing again?”

“Uh, no,” Lin said. “Remember the baby Kya stole out of the trash?”

Kya jabbed Lin in the ribs with her elbow. (She hated it when Lin said that instead of _our daughter,_ but, for some reason, Lin thought saying it that way was absolutely hilarious.) Lin _absolutely_ _did not_ let out a squawk.

“Yeah, well,” she continued. “Turns out Sivah’s a _firebender_. How do we stop her from burning the whole fucking house down?”

For a moment, Zuko was silent. “Oh, boy. Okay.”

Sokka snorted. “Very helpful, babe.”

Pointedly ignoring his husband, Zuko stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Well, I would get her enrolled in classes as fast as you can – not to start learning stances or anything, but to help her learn control. It’s important she knows how to keep her bending in check, otherwise you might have a few issues.”

Kya glanced at the singed patch on their rug. “Yeah, I can believe that.”

“Other than that… I mean, I would set up boundaries, make sure she knows that bending in the house isn’t okay, that sort of thing.” Zuko paused for a second. “And I know this sounds dumb, but make sure that she knows her firebending isn’t a _bad_ thing? Like, that it’s not a purely destructive element? I know the Fire Nation’s reputation is a lot better than it used to be-” Here, he grimaced slightly, “-and firebending isn’t as a much of a _taboo element,_ especially in Republic City, but there are always going to be idiots that will tell her otherwise.”

Offscreen, Lin reached down and squeezed Kya’s hand. _We got this_ , the gesture said. _Also, I’m going to beat up anyone that gives our kid shit._

(Kya almost laughed.)

“Of course,” she said instead. “Thank you, Uncle.”

Zuko smiled. She was suddenly struck by how old he was looking – Sokka, too. New lines creased Zuko’s face in the months since she’d last seen him, and the last stubborn streak of brown in Sokka’s wolftail had finally faded to grey.

They looked happy, though. It might’ve been an unorthodox decision, but she was glad Zuko had decided to abdicate the throne. The lowered stress levels suited him.

Sokka suddenly shoved his head _way_ too close to the camera, like he was staring at something behind Lin and Kya. They got a nice view of his nose hairs. “Did you guys _trap_ Sivah in a _pen?_ And what the hell happened to your floor?”

Lin at least had the decency to look guilty.

\---

After making fun of Lin for being the most panicky parent ever, Izumi had hung up the phone, leaving Lin and Kya to deal with their human blowtorch.

“Right,” Kya said, getting to her feet. “I’m going to go search up firebending classes. Keep an eye on Sivah, would you, love?”

A little nervously, Lin squatted down next to Sivah’s temporary holding pen and scooped her up, then sat down on the floor with her back resting against the couch.

In her lap, Sivah planted a hand on her chest and beamed up at her. “Ama!”

(Lin knew it was very sappy of her, but she thought her daughter’s attempts to call her _mama_ were adorable.)

“Hey,” Lin said. Unlike Kya, she’d never quite mastered the whole baby talk thing. “So, you’re a firebender, huh? Who would’ve thought?”

Sivah scrunched Lin’s shirt in her fist, making gurgling noises, as if to say, _honestly, I had no idea._

Now at eighteen months, she was still a little small, but they’d assumed that was a lasting affect of malnourishment as a youngster. She was an energetic little thing, to the point where Lin actually got _tired_ watching her, and, despite having not yet mastered the art of talking, she certainly made up for it with incessant babbling.

Carefully, Lin brushed a dull ember out of Sivah’s curly black hair. “You nearly gave your mom and I a heart attack, kid. I thought you were going to burn the whole place down, and then I’d have arrest my own daughter for arson, and then I’d have to arrest _Kya_ for inevitably trying to bust you out of prison.”

Sivah giggled, and a little spark floated out of her mouth. She looked absolutely _delighted_ ; Lin, less so. “Please don’t set my shirt on fire. I only got it yesterday.”

For once, it seemed like the kid was actually tired. She was slumped against Lin’s chest, face buried in her shoulder and one hand half-heartedly fisted in Lin’s shirt. _Bending takes a lot out of you when you’re little_ , Lin thought, remembering her own training experiences. “Don’t worry, kid, I’m not going to wake you up in the middle of the night and throw rocks at you,” Lin muttered, half to herself. “Unlike _someone_ , _Mom_.”

There was the sound of footsteps, and then Kya sat down on the floor beside them. “Geez, she’s tuckered herself out, huh?”

“Mhmm,” Lin said quietly, tugging gently on one of Sivah’s curls. “Speaking of tired, I’m _exhausted._ ”

“Well, nearly having a heart attack will do that to you,” Kya replied sagely. She snorted suddenly. “ _Spirits._ A firebender, huh?”

“Bet you’re regretting picking some random kid out of a dumpster now, huh?” Lin joked.

Kya scowled in mock-offense and uncrossed her legs so she could lightly kick Lin’s thigh. “Nah. No regrets.”

Lin met her gaze and smiled. “No regrets,” she echoed.


End file.
